Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child Early Literacy Initiative.

Pennsylvania's One Book, Every Young Child 2016 selection is Kite Day: A Bear and Mole Story. Written and illustrated by Will Hillenbrand, this picture book is for children ages 3 to 6.

Published in 2012 by Holiday House, this story is about two friends, Mole and Bear, who decide to make a kite and find themselves on a windy-day adventure.

This is the 11th year for this valuable program that highlights the importance of early literacy development in preschoolers. In its inaugural year, the One Book, Every Young Child program won the coveted national John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award.

The collaborating agencies all support early childhood literacy efforts and emphasize the importance of reading early and often to children, as well as engaging them in conversation and other activities around books. They have worked together to develop this multifaceted program which is accessible to all areas and populations of the state.

Throughout the year, there will be local events including author visits; library and museum programming for families; and activities for parents, early child care providers and educators. There also will be traveling trunks developed by museum educators to help expand upon the concepts in Kite Day: A Bear and Mole Story. Each trunk is filled with fun book-related activities, games and manipulatives for young children that align with the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards.

One Book, Every Young Child is made possible through a collaboration of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Please Touch Museum, and State Museum of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Library Association, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, The Pennsylvania Child Care Association and PennSERVE. This program is supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by Pennsylvania's Office of Commonwealth Libraries.

Previous selections for the Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child program are: